Project Whitewash is opposed to testing pesticides on human subjects. Also, we're in favor of apple pie.
In fact, however, human testing of pesticides is a controversial issue. When the Bush Administration imposed a moratorium on using data from human testing of pesticides late last year, Jay Vroom of the American Crop Protection Association said that the pesticide industry was likely to sue the EPA.
The pesticide industry wants to test pesticides on humans because such tests may allow sharp increases in pesticide application levels. Environmentalists argue that human tests are unethical and often misleading.
After an EWG report, The English Patients, called attention to the practice of human testing of pesticides in 1998, the Clinton Administration informally stopped reviewing these data. In 2001, however, the Bush Administration resumed accepting results of human tests for review (see articles from LA Times, Washington Post), but stopped later in the year (see another LA Times article), apparently as a result of media attention to the tests, and declared a temporary moratorium, while forwarding the question to the National Academy of Sciences for study.
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